now, madam speaker, the sandy hook elementary school tragedy is sparking a national debate about how and why this happened and how it might have been prevented. that debate is understandable and needs to happen. in the coming weeks, congress will be called on to react. questions have already arisen about guns and school safety and emergency preparedness. but these concerns and debates may bypass altogether some of the deeper, more difficult issues involved like what we grappled with after the tragic shootings of young people at columbine high school and on the virginia tech campus. what we must do, what we must do is to be honest. yes, there were guns involved, yes there are issues of school safety. and yes there was a collapse of mental health intervention. but i have not heard a significant discussion of the broader cultural context in which this and other tragedies have happened. all of these tragedies happened against a backdrop of a culture that increasingly devalues and degrades human life. graphic acts of violence and inhumanity pervade popular culture, entertainment and other